36 thoughts on “Home”

Hi Bob.
Just came across your article on Optimal Digital Exposure. Got all excited and I have purchased the book.
The answer to my question. Maybe in the book.
But you talked about Optimal Exposure being 99+. I don’t find any reference to numbers on the histogram in LR.
Have I missed the point somewhere.
Regards
Kevin

Kevin, (Sorry for the log delayed response – the comment portion of the site had a broken link. I was wondering way the comments stopped so abruptly – UGH!)

Moving your cursor will display the brightness value under the cursor. As for the 99% – to points here:
1.) 99% = 252 in RGB
2.) in Lightroom you can change the readout from RGB to Lab so you can directly read the “%” brightness. Roll over the histogram and “Right-Mouse-Click” and check “Show Lab Color Values” (see inset below)

Are you using the Optimum Digital Exposure in you photography?
If so, how is it working out for you?

Bob, I’m shocked at how much exposure I need but I see the results myself. When I’m shooting birds and other wildlife, shooting a bracket of three shots means the subject moves quite a bit. Is there a process where I can use EC to get closer to optimum when shooting only one shot?

Interesting challenge. I have some good of friends who are birders. I know they will position themselves in a certain location and set their camera on a tripod and wait for the action.

As long as the lighting doesn’t change and remains constant, you may want to run a series of bracketed exposures (Method #2: +1-1/3 then +/- 2/3 EV) and choose the 1st exposure that shows the highlight warning “Blinkies” on the back of your camera. I would then choose that +EV exposure and set the camera to single shot.

When you change scenes, where the exposure may be different, I would again run a series of Method #2 bracketed exposures. Again, choose the first exposure that shows the highlight clipping “Blinkies” warning on the back of your camera… then set the camera to single shot. (If you want to be real bold you could choose the 2nd exposure that shows the highlight warning “Blinkies” on the back of your camera – especially if the scene is a flat/low contrast.)

I bought your book last night (PDF) and I went out today to do a test. My question is after I make my optimum exposure how do I process it? Is there any special way in LightRoom that you recommend other than the way we normally process RAW files? Your book doesn’t seem to mention how to “tame” these very bright RAW files. I immediately want to reduce the exposure using the exposure slider and then fiddle with other sliders including the Tone Curve Sliders. Here is my image of Eucalyptus bark.

And yes, you process your optimum OneZone exposure as you normally would… there is no special processing for OZ photos.

However, I recommend that you first click on “Auto Tone” in the “Basic” panel. This has nothing to do with the OneZone methodology but clicking on “Auto Tone” in the “Basic” panel with Lightroom 4.0 and above will optimize the Adobe Camera Raw process. Then, after you click on auto tone, I would adjust the “Exposure” to get an “overall” satisfying brightness. Use the rest of the “Basic sliders” as you normally would.
When you were through with the “global” corrections in the “Basic” panel you can start using the “selective” processing tools such as the “Adjustment Brush; Gradient Filter; etc.”

Again, this is not unique to OneZone exposures but just the proper workflow when processing your raw exposures with Adobe Camera Raw software.
Thanks for the question, Bob

Hi
I downloaded the Optimum Digital Exposure but had problems opening it up on my iPad Air2.
I want to open it in iBook. Is this possible? Should I use “PDF converter” instead?
I got an error message: you have reached the limit of your downloads.
Should I open the file on the iMac instead of the iPad?
Thanking you in advance.
William
Thursday, November 6
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I am trying out method one to find the OWB, but I am wondering if I can extend the found OWB value by for example 1 stop if I am only shooting raw files. Normally can recover between 1 to 1 1/2 stops over-exposure from a raw file.

I found your article on ODE interesting and I will try to take advantage of it. However, a question:
How do Zebras fit into to your ODE scheme? Are Zebras more accurate than in-camera blinkies or are they the same?

I need to do a little research on this but if you can adjust the point where the zebra stripes appear it could be helpful.

If you ran the tests to determine what +EV produces your Optimum White Point [OWP], then, if you can just adjust your zebra stripes to occur at that same [OWP] +EV value this could be quite powerful with the OneZone method #2.

If you try this, please let me know your results. This could be very interesting.

I do not do a lot of studio strobe work. However, I did experiments with the one zone at a friend’s studio. The results were promising.
You will probably need a strobe meter and start your testing here. Here is what we did:

We then chose our optimum white point (the brightest exposure showing no highlight clipping)) and applied that exposure’s EV compensation into the Sekonic L-758dr meter.

Then we simply, metered the brightest part of the scene using the Sekonic L-758dr meter (with the compensation factor entered) and used the suggested readings.
I will ask Ken to send me a couple of photos from that session and maybe include them in a new blog post when I have time.

I hope that help some.

You should explore this more and maybe post your results for all to share.
Thanks Bob

On the support gage I have posted two questions regarding the details of your book yet my posts started with comments that it is waiting for moderation. I suspect you can not read my question. Please respond to this so our communication can be made.

Maybe I can shorten the time by posting them with written instructions (for those who are familiar with installing lightroom presets and filters).
Then I can follow up with the video instructions for those who need it.

The response to the article in the purchasing of the book is amazing. There is so much to do. Realistically I’m hoping the videos can be uploaded in a couple weeks. The first one will be the OneZone/Lightroom workflow.

The next videos will be installing and using the Lightroom OneZone Develop Presets and Library Filters then stepping through the “Empirical Proof Test. I probably will attack the shortest one first.

Have you considered the possibility of using RawDigger to evaluate exposure? I use Sigma DP Merrills, so raw evaluation in Lightroom/ACR is not possible. Fortunately, RawDigger works with the Sigma X3F files. Preliminary results suggest that your exposure method #2 (+1.3 EV ± 0.7) works fairly well for scenes with high contrast when using a DP1 Merrill. It seems clear to me that in-camera histograms are for the most part useless. Looking forward to further trials.

The concept of “optimum exposure” is really not dependent on Lightroom . I’m not overly familiar with CaptureOne but I do know it does have highlight warnings which is the main feature needed to evaluate your “optimum exposure” and 99+% brightness in your raw captures.

The reference to the Lightroom workflow is more about stacking, reading, and deleting the extra bracketed exposures.